Digital Event Horizon
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a "code red" to improve ChatGPT, following Google's release of its Gemini 3 model. The move marks an odd symmetry with events from December 2022, when Google management declared its own "code red" internal emergency after ChatGPT launched and rapidly gained in popularity.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a "code red" to improve ChatGPT in response to Google's release of Gemini 3.Altman is pushing back work on certain features, including advertising integration and AI agents for health and shopping.Google's Gemini 3 model has outperformed ChatGPT on some industry benchmark tests and received high-profile praise on social media.Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff recently switched to using Gemini 3 after three years of using ChatGPT daily.The financial stakes are high for both companies, with OpenAI relying on fundraising to survive due to a lack of profit.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has declared a “code red” to improve ChatGPT, according to a leaked internal memo. The move follows Google's release of its Gemini 3 model last month, which has outperformed ChatGPT on some industry benchmark tests and sparked high-profile praise on social media.
In the memo, Altman wrote, "We are at a critical time for ChatGPT." The company will push back work on advertising integration, AI agents for health and shopping, and a personal assistant feature called Pulse. Altman encouraged temporary team transfers and established daily calls for employees responsible for enhancing the chatbot.
The directive creates an odd symmetry with events from December 2022, when Google management declared its own "code red" internal emergency after ChatGPT launched and rapidly gained in popularity. At the time, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reassigned teams across the company to develop AI prototypes and products to compete with OpenAI's chatbot.
Now, three years later, the AI industry is in a very different place. Google released Gemini 3 in mid-November, and the model quickly topped the LMArena leaderboard, a crowdsourced vibemarking site that allows users to compare two AI models and select the one with outputs that please them most. The launch has been accompanied by measured praise from some and bombastic hype from others.
Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff wrote Sunday on X that he was switching to Gemini 3 after using ChatGPT daily for three years. "I'm not going back," Benioff wrote. "The leap is insane."
ChatGPT has more than 800 million weekly users, according to OpenAI, while Google's Gemini app has grown from 450 million monthly active users in July to 650 million in October.
Financial stakes run high for both companies, with OpenAI facing an unusual competitive disadvantage: Unlike Google, which subsidizes its AI ventures through search advertising revenue, OpenAI does not turn a profit and relies on fundraising to survive. According to The Information, the company, now valued at around $500 billion, has committed more than $1 trillion in financial obligations to cloud computing providers and chipmakers that supply the computing power needed to train and run its AI models.
The tech industry never stands still, and things can change quickly. Altman's memo also reportedly stated that OpenAI plans to release a new simulated reasoning model next week that may beat Gemini 3 in internal evaluations.
In AI, the back-and-forth cycle of one-upmanship is expected to continue as long as the dollars keep flowing.
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/The-AI-Showdown-OpenAIs-Code-Red-and-Googles-Gemini-3-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2025/12/openai-ceo-declares-code-red-as-gemini-gains-200-million-users-in-3-months/
https://apnews.com/article/openai-chatgpt-code-red-google-gemini-00d67442c7862e6663b0f07308e2a40d
Published: Tue Dec 2 17:04:32 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
